The regular part of the college football season is almost over. We are now into championship week. That will be followed by the first set of bowl games (pre-Christmas and Christmas Week) and then the New Year’s Day type of games and then the playoffs and then the CFB championship game.

College football has 128 teams that play at the major college FBS level. The post season used to be a reward for a season well done, usually at a warm place, with sunshine and festivities which offered a feel good atmosphere even if your team happened to lose its bowl game.

Now it is reward for participation with only a narrow margin of success.

A Jersey Guy has been covering FBS football since 1982, which is 34 seasons of games.

In 1982, there were 16 bowl games, five–Cotton, Orange, Rose, Sugar and Fiesta–held on New Year’s Day. And there was NO national championship game, unless it was an accidental meeting of two conferences with bowl ties being ranked No. 1 and No. 2.

In 1992, the bowl total had increased to 18 games, with 8 on January 1. and there was a national championship game arranged by the rankings.

In 2002, the total had expanded again to 25, the BCS had been created with a pecking order of ranked bowl teams facing each other. The rest of this article is available to subscribers only – to become a subscriber click here.